Hype Of Precision Medicine Getting Too Far Ahead Of The Facts, Experts Worry

NPR: DNA Sequencing Holds Some Promise For Treating Tumors
People diagnosed with cancer understandably reach for the very best that medical science has to offer. That motivation is increasingly driving people to ask to have the DNA of their tumors sequenced. And while that's useful for some malignancies, the hype of precision medicine for cancer is getting far ahead of the facts. It's easy to understand why that's the case. When you hear stories about the use of DNA sequencing to create individualized cancer treatment, chances are they are uplifting stories. Like that of Ben Stern. (Harris, 1/15)

The Washington Post: First Treatment Approved For Breast Cancer With BRCA Genetic Mutation
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday cleared the first treatment for patients with advanced breast cancer caused by BRCA mutations, which are genetic defects that raise the risk of malignancies. The drug, called Lynparza, already is approved for certain patients with advanced ovarian cancer associated with the same mutations. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, said in a statement that expanding the approval to breast-cancer patients “demonstrates the current paradigm of developing drugs that target the underlying genetic causes of a cancer, often across cancer types.” (McGinley, 1/12)

Kaiser Health News: When You Need A Breast Screening, Should You Get A 3-D Mammogram?
When I went to the imaging center for my regular mammogram last year, the woman behind the desk asked me if I’d like to get a “3-D” mammogram instead of the standard test I’d had in the past. “It’s more accurate,” she said. What do you say to that? “No, thanks, I’d rather have the test that gets it wrong?” Of course, I agreed. (Andrews, 1/16)

Stat: A Health Advocate's Crusade Brings Skin Lightening Out Of The Dark
[Amira Adawe's] visits are more than social, however. The public health advocate scans market shelves for skin lightening creams that may contain harmful toxins — tubes and jars sold under names such as Fair & Lovely, Prime White, and Miss Beauty 7 Days White. Some women use the creams in hopes of erasing dark spots, but many rub them over their entire bodies multiple times a day in hopes of whitening their brown skin. The practice pervades many cultures in Africa, Asia, the Middle East — and many immigrant communities in the U.S. — and Adawe has made it her mission to end it. (Eldred, 1/16)

The New York Times: After Surgery In The Womb, A Baby Kicks Up Hope
For a small person who had surgery before he was even born, and who’d just spent an hour and a half squeezing through a tight space that clamped down on his head every few minutes, Baby Boy Royer was showing a feisty spirit. He arrived pink and screaming on Friday at 5:35 a.m., two days before his official due date, weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces, and almost 20 inches long. (Grady, 1/15)

The New York Times: Music Therapy Offers An End-Of-Life Grace Note
At 90, Beverly Herzog is writing songs for the first time. Once a week, a music therapist helps Mrs. Herzog transform her thoughts into lyrics, then sings them back to her mellifluously over the strums of her guitar. The result can be transformative. When Mrs. Herzog listened during a session in December, she marveled at how magically the music reflected her views on love and life. (Otterman, 1/15)

Los Angeles Times: Even Without Nudging Blood Pressure Up, High-Salt Diet Hobbles The Brain
A high-salt diet may spell trouble for the brain — and for mental performance — even if it doesn't push blood pressure into dangerous territory, new research has found. A new study has shown that in mice fed a very high-salt diet, blood flow to the brain declined, the integrity of blood vessels in the brain suffered, and performance on tests of cognitive function plummeted. (Healy, 1/15)

The New York Times: He Helped Ex-Players Get Benefits. His Family Is Still Waiting.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers begin their march to a potential seventh Super Bowl championship on Sunday afternoon, Garrett Webster will be delivering pizza from his 14-year-old Honda Pilot. This might surprise fans and his customers, but Mr. Webster, the 33-year-old son of Mike Webster, the stalwart center of the Steelers’ dynasty of the 1970s, has to make ends meet. Playoff game days are especially busy. (Belson, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Why It's So Hard To Understand What A Doctor Says
Few simple questions are as difficult to answer as the perennial “What did the doctor say?” The words are so natural as to be virtually automatic. They spring from our lips, almost of their own accord, whenever a loved one returns from a doctor’s visit. Whether we recognize it or not, the answer has the potential to make us face our own mortality. (Klasco and Glinert, 1/14)

Los Angeles Times: Too Much Business Travel Can Lead To Depression, Anxiety And Trouble Sleeping, Study Says
If you are a business traveler who has to be away from home more than two weeks a month, no one has to tell you that this much travel can wear you down. But a study from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health confirms that people who travel for business two weeks or more a month are more likely to report symptoms of anxiety, depression and trouble sleeping than those who travel less than one week a month. (Martin, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Back Pain Turned Into Terrifying Paralysis For 20-Year-Old
The 200-mile drive from Chicago to his home in Springfield, Ill., seemed longer than usual as James Weitzel tried, with little success, to relieve the dull pain near his right shoulder blade that had dogged him for months. His family doctor had told the 20-year-old he had probably pulled a muscle or injured a disk in his back while hoisting cases of beer at the pizza shop where he worked. Over-the-counter painkillers hadn’t helped, and Weitzel discovered that sitting on his hand while piloting his blue Cadillac down Interstate 55 made the pain less bothersome. (Boodman, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Toilet Training Age Varies So Much Parents Should Forget Anxiety
Are 2-year-olds too young to start toilet training? For many children, yes. Especially boys. At least, that’s what American pediatricians would probably say. Only about half of the children in the United States are fully toilet-trained by age 3. Chinese grandmothers would be appalled. They would probably point out that with “split pants,” most kids are trained by age 2. (Gottlieb, 1/15)

The Washington Post: Brain Timing May Trick You Into Delusional Thoughts
Have you ever felt as though you predicted exactly when the light was going to turn green or sensed that the doorbell was about to ring? Imagine the possibility that these moments of clairvoyance occur simply because of a glitch in your mind’s time logs. What happened first — your thought about the doorbell or its actual ringing? It may have felt as if the thought came first, but when two events (ringing of doorbell, thought about doorbell) occur close together, we can mistake their order. This leads to the sense that we accurately predicted the future when, in fact, all we did is notice the past. (Bear, Fortgang and Bronstein, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Tide Pod Challenge: What Is It, And Why Is The Viral Video Dare Dangerous?
First, it was the “gallon challenge” and the “cinnamon challenge.” Then some teenagers started playing the “bath-salt challenge.” They have dared each other to pour salt in their hands and hold ice till it burns, douse themselves in rubbing alcohol and set themselves ablaze, and throw boiling water on unsuspecting peers. Now videos circulating on social media are showing kids biting into brightly colored liquid laundry detergent packets. Or cooking them in frying pans, then chewing them up before spewing the soap from their mouths. (Bever, 1/13)

Kaiser Health News: In Wisconsin, Hopes Rise For Production Of A Lifesaving Radioactive Isotope
In a cornfield here, past the shuttered General Motors plant and the Janesville Terrace trailer home park, a facility not seen in the United States in three decades could soon rise: a manufacturing plant that will make a vital radioactive isotope used to detect cancer and other potentially fatal maladies in millions of people every year. (Varney, 1/16)

NPR: Teens' Self-Esteem Grows When Volunteering To Help Strangers
At the start of the new year, parents may encourage their teens to detox from social media, increase exercise, or begin a volunteer project. While kids may bristle at the thought of posting fewer selfies, surveys indicate 55 percent of adolescents enjoy volunteering. And according to a recent study, when it comes to helping others, teens may benefit psychologically from spending time helping strangers. (Fraga, 1/13)